This Course (design studio) is a one-semester Course. Its teaching objective is to design a new settlement for 14.000 inhabitants -  including all the public and private facilities and landscape areas - from the urban design scale to the architectural and structural design.The location of the settlement is the “Casale di Gregna” area, a very peculiar area for its agricultural, landscape and periurban character, close to Ciampino Airport,  Capannelle Racecourse, at the boundary of the historical suburban urban fabric of south east Rome and from where you can see the Vulcano Laziale.

The course (recommended for last years students) investigates the emerging issues of contemporary urban and residential design in Rome through the analysis of the implementation procedures of the Action Plans (Piani di Zona) produced in Rome during the 1st and 2nd PEEP (Public Housing Programmes). This analysis includes the study of the Action Plan developed for the same area by the group of architects led by Paolo Portoghesi in the years ‘80 of the last Century. The Course takes also into consideration also the most significant cases of the urban design morphology and typology literature, from the Modern Movement to the Roman School (civic/urban architecture lessons by Piacentini, Muratori, Caniggia, Quaroni) and up to the most significant case-studies of contemporary urbanisms; the Course will consider also the general sustainability of the projects and takes also into consideration the “real estate market” trends in urban area with high historical, landscape and periurban qualities.

The Course simulates the real implementation process of “the city per parts", from the urban scheme to the architectural and structural scale, considering the fact that whatever is the local architectural culture Urban Designer are rarely responsible of the Architectural Design in the same neighborhood. Therefore the Course is divided in two phases: in the First Phase the students, organized in little groups, act as Urban Designers and produce a Master Plan for the whole settlement, including all rules, regulations and suggestions to indirectly lead the architectural design of the single buildings. In the second Phase each student is bound to architecturally designing a building or a little group of buildings included in a plot belonging to one of the Master Plans previously selected. 

The Master Plans are mainly developed at the scale 1/1000, with some more detailed samples. The architectural design of a single building or of a little group of buildings is developed at the normal architectural scales (1/200, 1/100, 1/50, 1/20). The architectural design includes also the major aspects of the construction technologies and of the structural design.